大乘起信論內義略探記 1.3

1.3

First, regarding the general import: the true source is desolate and serene, not to be measured by consciousness; the dharmatā is empty and congealed, beyond words to expound. Yet, because great compassion never ceases, the net of teachings spans the ocean of suffering to rescue the fish of humans and devas; the sun of wisdom is impartial, its auspicious light shining through the dark night to startle those from their long sleep of dreams. After the Tathāgata's parinirvāṇa, there was a bodhisattva named Aśvaghoṣa whose path surpassed the three stages of worthies and whose rank stepped into the ten sages. With luminous wisdom inwardly interfused and compassion outwardly shed, he thoroughly fathomed the profound import and closely examined the capacities of beings. Skillfully knowing their dispositions and inclinations, he composed the treatise at that time. As for this treatise: its principle embraces the multitude of scriptures, its meaning gathers all expositions, its literary elegance is brilliant, and its essential course is easy to comprehend. Even if the Buddhas of the ten directions were to extensively praise for a long time the merit of correct contemplation for the duration of a meal, they could not exhaust it. By means of it the correct path flourished, and because of it deviant paths declined; the Buddha-sun shone again, and the turning of the Dharma was restored. Therefore, the Māyā-sūtra says: 'Six hundred years after the Tathāgata's parinirvāṇa, ninety-six kinds of heterodox paths and the like will contend and arise, wishing to destroy the Buddha-Dharma. There will be a monk named Aśvaghoṣa, a bodhisattva who preaches the essentials of the Dharma and subdues all the heterodox paths,' and so forth.